To blend or just keep chopped?

The challenge with fruit pies is finding a way to deal with the liquid the fruit will give off during the baking. In this recipe, that's done by precooking the fruit fillings, so you need less thickening agent- the corn starch, in this case. If you don't blitz them and make an apple butter to cook off some of the juice, it's going to come out during the baking anyway, and you will end up with a really juicy liquid pie filling that will not set up for cutting neat slices. I am in the same camp as you- I like a traditional apple pie with chunks or slices. My favorite recipe for this sort of pie is from the King Arthur baking site -
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/apple-pie-with-cranberries-recipe
You do cook the cranberries, and it calls for apple slices- but small chunks would work as well. I leave out the pecans, but that's a choice you can make yourself. I think that would be a lot easier than trying to alter this recipe.